Even up till a few years ago, owning a feature-rich basic smartphone with a decent ROM was difficult. Then came the Chinese smartphone makers led by Xiaomi with mobiles that are pocket-friendly and offered better features.

Currently, the market is flooded with budget phone. So many companies – both Indian and Chinese – are selling cheap phones with decent specs.

Indian phone maker Mafe is also one of the recent players in the affordable phone market. The company recently launched Shine M 810 for Rs 4,499.

The Shine M 810 comes with a 5.-inch (12.7 cm) display with a screen resolution of 480 x 854 pixels. That can leave you looking for more under the sunlight and is also otherwise underwhelming. The phone is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor and it comes with 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage that is expandable up to 32 GB, decent for normal daily usage. But while gaming and under slightly heavy use, the phone becomes slow and heats up fast.

Shine M 810 runs on Android 6.0 Marshmellow, which is outdated given that a lot of phones now come with Android 7.

The Mafe Shine M810 comes with a 5MP rear camera and a 2MP front shooter for selfies with flash. I think the makers included a camera because they have to, given it is a smartphone. You can click images in good daylight, otherwise they are not that great.

It is powered by a 2800 mAh non-removable battery, which lasts up to a day if you use the phone mainly for calling purposes. But continuous usage of social media apps will drain out the battery pretty fast.

The Shine M 810 supports dual SIM with 4G VoLTE connectivity. Other connectivity options such as WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, Headphones, FM are available.

The phone comes for under Rs 5,000 and considering its price, it is just about a basic smartphone that is aimed at first-time smartphone buyers who are on a tight budget.

Price: Rs. 4,499

Pros: Cheap entry-level option

Cons: Heavy, poor camera, display could be better

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